Bacon's Rebellion Research Paper

Bacon's rebellion was also known as a civil war. Nathaniel Bacon led the rebellion against Governor Berkeley due the corruption within the tobacco farmer wealthiest. Bacon rebelled because he felt the government mainly Berkeley was showing favoritism to the Indians by not letting poorer farms us the Indians lands and not caring enough about their own colonists. The reason being Bacon felt the Indians where a problem to the economy when in reality they were not the cause of the economy decline. This shows how prejudice Bacon is toward the Indians and their contribution to the trading policy. Bacon and Berkeley where both very selfish men in history's view point they both saw the running of the government in different lights. Bacon was against

Bacon was very smart as well. They were related by marriage. Berkeley always treated Bacon with respect but Bacon was not happy with that he caused a lot of problems for the Governor. Bacon had a problem with Berkeley having a good report with the Indians. Berkeley wanted to keep the peace with the Indians because they did trading with them and he had made some good friendships with he Indians. Bacon was not happy with this outlook and he took matters into his own hands. He saw his chance when the Indians raided a plantation owned by Thomas Matthews. The Indians raided this plantation due to the fact that Thomas took goods from the Indians and he didn't pay for them this in turn caused the Indians to retaliate. So they needed someone to take the fall for their declining economy and they used the Indians. Bacon decides to retaliate but he retaliated against the wrong Indians (Susquehanna’s). The Indians that raided Thomas Matthews’s plantation where to Doeg Indians. This retaliation gave Bacon all the ammunition he needed to wage his war on the Indians. This is a show of the racial aspect of Bacons point of view. He did not care for the Indians at all because of his prejudice of the people. Bacon feels that the Indian’s did some of the other colonists wrong when they raided their plantations. The Indian’s where not the cause of these raids they only did it because they were treated unjustly in the being. The

But the way Bacon ruled the government when Berkeley fled after burning down Jamestown he generated great support from the small farmers, men with no land, servants and some African Americans as well these supporters made up the bulk of his army. Berkeley was a man who wanted peace with the Indians this is why he came up with “The Long Assembly” a government established to monitor trading with the Indians. This assembly was not well received by everyone Berkeley had some of his supporters that felt he was not on their side this is why he came up with this assembly to give the supporters an olive branch to show he was flexible to their needs. All in all both men where strong willed and this lead to a power struggle that eventually started the path of war between the people of